One application of logistics management is the management of freight shipments. This process can be complex, and often requires coordination of multiple participants, including freight forwards, carriers, and the like. In addition, the process often requires some form of shipment tracking, capacity control of flights, container control, terminal management, cash management, consolidation, and other common freight management tasks.
To assist with this complex process, logistics management systems have been developed. These systems typically provide computing resources to process freight shipment data, and attempt to aid in scheduling, coordinating and tracking various aspects of the freight shipment. These systems typically require significant data entry, based on current shipping volumes and the number of participants, customers, agents, and other resources that may be associated with the shipments. As a result, relatively untrained individuals may have difficulty understanding and effectively interacting with conventional logistics management systems. Moreover, because of the complexity of the process, the individual is often required to interact with multiple input screens or even multiple systems in order to perform an overall task, such as coordinating shipment of a particular cargo item from an origin to a destination.